Principal Platform Architect

Title: Principal Platform Architect Location: Remote Duration: Long Term Infrastructure Self-Service Platform Engagement Position Summary The Principal Platform Architect owns the overall solution architecture and technical governance for a governed, multi-modal infrastructure self-service platform being delivered for a financial services client on Azure. This role is accountable for architecture decisions spanning the service catalog, Terraform module standards, the golden path GitHub Actions provisioning pipeline, multi-entry-point access (GitHub UI, API, CLI, and conversational agent), the long-term memory system (semantic and graph), and two production-grade composite Terraform patterns. The architect leads client-facing design conversations, sets technical direction for the delivery team, contributes to hands on developer and delivery and formally signs off on each milestone. Key Responsibilities • Own end-to-end solution architecture across all five delivery milestones: service catalog and state backend foundation, golden path workflow and governance pipeline, entry points (GitHub Form UI, API, CLI), conversational agent, composite patterns and the long-term memory system. • Lead assessment of the client's existing GitHub organization, Terraform module library, Azure Blob Storage remote state, and Azure Key Vault configuration; produce standards guides, gap analyses, and prioritized remediation recommendations. • Define the service catalog manifest schema (YAML/JSON) and the module authoring standards (structure, variable/output contracts, tagging taxonomy) that all Terraform modules and composite patterns must follow. • Architect the golden path GitHub Actions workflow: stage sequence, inputs/outputs contract, OPA policy checks, security scanning gates, human-in-the-loop approval, and Terraform apply — ensuring the pipeline is reusable and entry-point agnostic. • Direct the identity and access architecture: GitHub OIDC federation, Azure workload identities/service principals, RBAC and least-privilege patterns, and Entra ID-based authentication for the API and CLI. • Guide design of the three platform entry points (GitHub Issue Forms UI, versioned REST API on Azure API Management/Functions, and CLI) ensuring all converge on the same golden path workflow without duplicated logic. • Architect the conversational agent integration with existing Chatbot, including tool set design (catalog lookup, parameter validation, workflow trigger, status retrieval, memory queries), multi-turn conversation handling, and guardrails against hallucination and unauthorized actions. • Design the long-term memory system architecture: semantic layer and knowledge graph on PostgreSQL, ontology (nodes/edges for modules, patterns, policies, deployments, approvers), and ingestion/query interfaces used by the agent and pipeline. • Lead the architecture and technical design of the two composite Terraform patterns (AKS-based containers; MCP integration with APIM, Azure AI Foundry, and Azure Front Door), including component selection, module wiring, and dependency mapping. • Serve as the primary technical escalation point for the client, participate in steering committee and governance forums, and provide milestone sign-off against each Definition of Done. • Review and approve OPA policy bundles, security scanning baselines, and observability/alerting design (Grafana + GitHub data source + Microsoft Teams integration) for alignment with financial services controls. • Mentor and provide technical direction to the Platform Engineer, Security Engineer, and Project Manager on the delivery team; enforce architectural consistency across all workstreams. Required Qualifications • 10+ years in infrastructure/platform engineering with at least 4 years in a lead architect role designing and delivering cloud platform or internal developer platform (IDP) solutions. • 8+ years of software engineering experience, with 2+ years in senior roles shipping production systems. • Strong Python/GO proficiency - design expressive API contracts • Strong Python/GO experience for backend services, CLIs, or systems-level tooling. • Experience with API design - RESTful APIs, versioning, error handling, pagination, and building interfaces that developers and automation consumers depend on. • Experience building or working with control planes, reconciliation loops, or state machines for resource lifecycle automation. • Understanding of distributed systems principles - eventual consistency, failure handling, idempotency, and resilience patterns. • Hands-on experience with Azure and Terraform • Experience with Kubernetes - deploying services, understanding the resource model, and operating workloads in a cluster environment. • You have shipped features through the full lifecycle - design, implementation, testing, deployment, and production operation - and you have been the one answering the page when things go wrong. You understand what it takes to keep software running, not just to get it merged. • Deep hands-on expertise architecting solutions on Microsoft Azure, including Blob Storage, Key Vault, Entra ID, API Management, and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). • Proven track record designing Terraform-based Infrastructure as Code programs at scale, including module authoring standards, composite/reusable pattern design, and remote state management. • Strong experience architecting CI/CD pipelines in GitHub Actions, including reusable workflows, OIDC federated identity, environment protection rules, and approval gates. • Working knowledge of policy-as-code frameworks (OPA/Rego) and IaC security scanning tools (Checkov, tfsec) in a governance pipeline context. • Experience designing systems that integrate LLM-based conversational agents with backend automation/tooling, including guardrails, tool invocation constraints, and human-in-the-loop controls. • Familiarity with semantic search and knowledge graph concepts (vector embeddings, graph traversal) and experience architecting data layers that support both. • Demonstrated experience in a client-facing architecture role within a regulated or financial services environment, including formal milestone governance and sign-off processes. • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present architecture decisions to executive and technical stakeholders. • Experience with PostgreSQL extensions for vector/semantic search and graph-style queries via recursive CTEs. • Prior experience building or integrating with an AI agent platform (e.g., Azure AI Foundry) as an LLM backend. • Prior experience with AI Agent development (Azure AI Foundry) • Experience with Grafana observability stacks, including custom data source integration and alert routing (e.g., to Microsoft Teams). • Background in financial services or other highly regulated industries with strict change control and compliance requirements. • Experience defining OpenAPI 3.x specifications and API versioning/governance standards. • PostgreSQL experience - schema design, migrations, query optimization. Core Technical Skills • Azure: Blob Storage, Key Vault, Entra ID, API Management, AKS, Azure AI Foundry • Terraform (module design, composite patterns, remote state, provider/version governance) • GitHub Actions (reusable workflows, OIDC, Environments, Issue Forms) • OPA/Rego policy-as-code; Checkov/tfsec security scanning • PostgreSQL (semantic/vector search, graph via CTEs) • REST API design (OpenAPI 3.x), CLI tooling concepts • Grafana observability and alerting • LLM/conversational agent architecture and tool-calling patterns